Last week an Irish Facebook friend and Tudor enthusiast suggested we put more art on Facebook. He asked me to post something about Hans Holbein. I began with Holbein’s famous painting of Henry VIII, but couldn’t resist – I had to share family members painted by the great man.

I’ve noticed some of the people who sat for Holbein seemed somewhat awkward about or uncomfortable with the situation. I am most haunted by our Sir Henry Wyatt.

Sir Henry Wyatt Knight

His painting is oil on oak, only 15.4″ x 12.2.” According to Wikipedia, which does a nice job of documenting the art they share with us, it’s in the Louvre Museum, on the second floor, room 8.

This is the face that endured the application of horse barnacles during torture ordered by Richard III. He was only 23 when imprisoned and locked away until the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. He lived with that face for a long time.

“In the Louvre picture Sir Henry is represented at half-length, slightly turned to the right, wearing a black skull-cap over his long hair, and the customary overcoat with deep fur collar, and green under-sleeves ; from his shoulders hangs a large heavy gold chain, to which a gold cross is attached, which he grasps with his right hand, and holds a folded paper in his left. He is clean-shaven, and has a large rounded nose. The wrinkled face, the small tremulous mouth, and the tired eyes with the sadness of their expression, produce a very life-like effect of old age. The chain is put on with real gold, in a way which Holbein practised from time to time in England.” Hans Holbein the Younger: Volume 1 by Arthur Bensley Chamberlain

Susan Foister, author of Holbein in England, ISBN 1854376454 wrote “the sitter appears to have lost his teeth.”

Experts think it was painted around 1537 – around the same time as his son’s portrait and very near the time of his death. Sir Henry was born in 1460, died at 76 or 77 on 10 November, 1537.

Sir Thomas Wyatt the Poet …

He would have been around 34 in 1537. Wikipedia tells us this is “Black and coloured chalks, pen and ink on pink-primed paper, 37.3 × 27.2 cm, Royal Collection, Windsor Castle.” One of my books (Holbein by Jane Roberts) says it was “Black and coloured chalks and ink applied with pen and brush on pink prepared paper 37.1 x 27 cm.” We’re told Holbein also drew a profile portrait.

According to Holbein’s Drawings at Windsor Castle by Phaidon, “On a pale pink priming, 14 11/16 x 10 11/16”: chalks: black, red (face, patch at shoulder on left, another on chest), brown (beard); reinforced with the pen in indian ink (hair, beard). Eyes: grey-blue. Inscribed (gold and scarlet) in left upper corner Tho: Wiatt Knight. The face is considerably stained.”

Phaidon also mentions “Another portrait of Wyatt by Holbein is also lost. From it derive the small circular woodcut which appeared in Leland’s Naeniae in mortem ?Thomae Viati, 1542, and two circular paintings, in reverse to the woodcut, in the Bodleian Library and National Portrait Gallery.” I think this refers to the following image:

So then, what’s this? Wikipedia says “A high-quality copy of this drawing by another hand survives, perhaps from the Elizabethan period (K. T. Parker, The Drawings of Hans Holbein at Windsor Castle, Oxford: Phaidon, 1945.” (I don’t like it.)

Sir Thomas Wyatt was born in 1503 at Allington Castle; he died at a friend’s house, age 38 or 39, on 11 October, 1542.

This is Margaret Wyatt, Lady Lee– Sir Henry’s only daughter, Sir Thomas’ sister, dear friend of Anne Boleyn. Apparently Margaret was also known as Mary, so Wikipedia is confused about “which sister” was Anne’s loyal Lady in Waiting. She looks so different from her father and brother, I wonder if she took after her mother – Anne Skinner.

Wikipedia dates it at about 1540, tempera on panel, 16.7 × 12.9″ – currently in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Margaret was the mother of Sir Henry Lee, Queen Elizabeth’s champion. (Check it out; I swear I can see some Wyatt in his painting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Henry_Lee)

Some think this Holbein may be Elizabeth Brooke, wife of Sir Thomas Wyatt the Poet.

According to Holbein’s Drawings at Windsor Castle by Phaidon, “The inscription is certainly incorrect, the features showing no resemblance whatever with the well authenticated drawing of Anne Boleyn in Lord Bradford’s possession… It is possible that there is indirect evidence of the sitter’s identity in the occurrence of various heraldic sketches on the reverse of the drawing, these being the coat-of-arms of the Wyatt family.”

Her brother was George Brooke, 9th Baron of Cobham. Do we see a resemblance? I think so, but it’s hard to say.

Sir Thomas Wyatt’s brother-in-law took part in the trail of Anne Boleyn and got caught up in his son’s rebellion against Queen Mary.

Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger was born in 1521. He was about 15 or 16 when his grandfather died, 20 or 21 when his father died. He was one of the leaders of the rebellion opposing Queen Mary’s desire to marry Philip of Spain. Henry’s grandson was executed at 32 or 33 at Tower Hill on 11 April 1554.

“Provenance: Presumably commissioned by sitter’s father Sir Thomas Wyatt Senior (1503 – 1542), Thence likely by descent to sitter and dispersed with his property after his execution in 1554; With J. Tremlett Esq. by whom sold; Christie’s, 22 November 1974, lot 152”

Other close friends of Sir Thomas Wyatt the Poet were painted by Holbein, but let us not end this post without adding the Wyatt family’s powerful friend Thomas Cromwell.

Painted between 1532 and 1533, oil on oak panel, 30.9 × 25.4″.

According to Wikipedia, “Three early versions of this painting survive: this one, in the Frick Collection, New York; one in the National Portrait Gallery, London (see ‘other versions’ below); and one at Burton Constable, Yorkshire, England. Art scholar Roy Strong believed that all three were copies and, while the condition of all three is poor, that the Frick version is in the best condition. Art scholar John Rowlands, however, has since deduced from pentimenti (signs of alteration) revealed by X-ray photographs that the Frick version shows the hand of Holbein himself and is the original. He is followed in this attribution by art scholar Stephanie Buck. All three versions had scrolls painted above Cromwell’s head, but the scroll on the Frick version, which was painted after Cromwell’s execution, was removed during restoration. The painting has been over-restored, resulting in the removal of much of the surface subtlety characteristic of Holbein.”

Natalie Dormer, a historian at heart, was devoted to being as authentic as possible. “The execution scene was especially important to Natalie: “By the end of the season, when I’m standing on that scaffold,” she told Michael, “I hope you write it the way it should be. And I want the effect of that scene to remain with viewers for the length of the series…. Hirst, too, recalls the heightened emotions of shooting that scene: “That was an amazing day. Extraordinary day. After, I went in to congratulate her. She was weeping and saying, `She’s with me Michael. She’s with me.’http://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/75175679.html#ixzz2Yqy8sDLz

In this video Natalie is taken to the actual spots where history was made, including Anne’s final resting place.

Our young relative* Queen Catherine (Henry’s fifth wife and Anne Boleyn’s cousin) rehearsed with a block so she wouldn’t make a fool of herself.

According to Wikipedia (not a resource I trust, but ok for these purposes) “She died with relative composure, but looked pale and terrified and required assistance to climb the scaffold.”

I could not find anything on youtube that portrayed her demise with adequate respect.

LADY JANE GRAY

Lady Jane Gray – the innocent pawn known as “the nine day queen” – was blindfolded and needed help finding the block. Although the setting is all wrong, Paul Delaroche captured the emotion in 1833. (See main image, above.)

MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS

I don’t know – we may be vaguely related – but Mary Queen of Scots went to the block with her small dog hiding in her red petticoats; red was the color of a Catholic martyr. She would have been mortified if she had known how humiliating her end would be.

Wikipedia again … “Mary was not beheaded with a single strike. The first blow missed her neck and struck the back of her head. The second blow severed the neck, except for a small bit of sinew, which the executioner cut through using the axe. Afterward, he held her head aloft and declared, “God save the Queen.” At that moment, the auburn tresses in his hand turned out to be a wig and the head fell to the ground, revealing that Mary had very short, grey hair. A small dog owned by the queen, a Skye terrier, is said to have been hiding among her skirts, unseen by the spectators.”

I no longer share original Wyatt content here because I will not give my work away. Cousins – please DO join me/us on Facebook where I share interesting articles from other Tudor and medieval fanatics daily. We are there as Sir Thomas Wyatt the Poet. (See Facebook link at right.)

*We are related to all of Henry VIII’s queens through Jane Haute, wife of Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger.

On May 15, 1905, Sir Martin Conway inserted the following advertisement in the Times – ‘Wanted: To purchase old manor house or abbey, built in the sixteenth century or earlier, with old garden, not much land, no sporting facilities, preferably five miles or more from a railway station.’

Two replies were received – one about a stuccoed castellated mansion, suitable for a hotel or hydro; the other from Allington Castle on the River Medway, not far from Maidstone, in which we were picnicking after the purchase, six weeks from that date. Fortunately it was summer, for the castle was open to the sky, with the exception of the rooms in the gabled Elizabethan building which was the home of innumerable rats, who ran about inside the walls all day and night.

The age of the building exceeded our demands; for that a real medieval castle should be for sale, thirty-five miles from London, had never even entered our minds. This one contained remains of three successive castles and two manor houses – the earliest a moated mound raised at the time of the Conquest, and once crowned by a wooden fort, of which the mound and the moat are still extant.

Figure 2, The Moat Wall

The second, a stone castle, built toward the end of the eleventh century and pulled down in 1170 at a cost of sixty shillings by orders of the King, after a general rising of the barons. Of this castle, a gigantic fireplace, large enough to roast an ox, and the foundations of several rooms, marked out by us in cement in the inner courtyard, remain. The twelfth-century wall, surrounding the moat, is intact, and forms the background to our herbaceous border. (Figure 2).

For the next one hundred and twelve years, during which period no one took out a license to crenelate the building, Allington was merely a manor house, in the possession of the Norman family of Longchamp, relatives of the regent whom Richard I left to govern England when he went on crusade. But in 1279, Stephen of Penchester, Warden of the Cinque Ports, who owned Penshurst Place in Kent, afterward the home of Sir Philip Sidney, bought Allington and obtained a license to turn it into a castle again.

He put the battlements (restored in 1909) on the Longchamp gatehouse (Figure 4) and on the west wing (Figure 1) – also of the Longchamp period in the lower story – and built Solomon’s Tower (Figure 3) at the end of the block. This was the main tower of the castle; and the room on the first floor, with two arrow shoots, a window, two doors and a fireplace of his date, is my bedroom to-day. (Figure 6) All it needed was a roof and a floor.

Figure 1, The West Wing

Figure 3, Solomon's Tower

The Tower Bedroom

He built with Kentish rag, like his predecessors, but imported Caen stone from Normandy for the windows and doors.

The top of Solomon’s Tower, as restored by us, and the courtyard aspect of the west wing are seen in Figure 5.

Figure 5, the Outer Courtyard

Stephen was the best of the many builders of Allington, and his mortar is still as hard as a rock. But in two hundred and fifty years fashions changed; and when Allington was bought in 1507 by Sir Henry Wyatt, the father of Sir Thomas Wyatt, the poet, certain alterations were made.

The buildings had hitherto enclosed one large courtyard; but Wyatt, in the manner of his time, built a Long Gallery across it from the Penchester porch (Figure 5), dividing it into two almost equal-sized courtyards. Wyatt’s arch leading to the inner courtyard is also seen in Figure 5. He introduced larger windows throughout the building, as in the room over the entrance arch (Figure 4), and his son decorated it so sumptuously that it was famed as a splendid house in his day.

Here Sir Henry Wyatt entertained Henry VIII, whose dinner was served through the door and kitchen hatch found by us bricked up in the wine cellar. But the Wyatt reign at Allington was only of forty-six years; for the younger Sir Thomas lost his head and property in a rebellion against the Spanish marriage of Queen Mary in 1553 and Allington was never again a residence of consequence.

An Elizabethan gabled story was added all the way round the courtyard when the castle was turned into a farmhouse about the year 1600, and many drawings and water colors by Turner and others exist of it in that condition.

In 1840 the gables along the length of the west wing were pulled down, the beams of the floors taken out and sold, the paneling destroyed, and the bulk left in the state in which it was found by us.

The opposite side of the inner courtyard continued in existence as a farmhouse and then as laborers’ cottages, becoming even more and more derelict, till it sheltered us when we were planning our restoration.

The first thing we had to do was to rebuild Wyatt’s Long Gallery, which had burned down in 1820, and thereby gain access from the Elizabethan house to the ruined west wing without going out of doors or through the domestic quarters on the ground floor. This room is frankly modern, and has served us ever since as the general living-room. That completed, we could turn out attention to the west wing, a gutted shell with thirteenth century doors and windows intact. Here we had to strip the ivy, which, six feet thick in places, concealed every stone of the walls.

With the roof gone, we were at liberty to reconstruct the battlements built by Stephen of Penchester. This entailed rebuilding the top eight feet of wall, which had been cut away in places for the low gables; yet sufficient data remained to reerect them exactly as they had been in 1282 (Figure 1).

We then dug away the soil of ages, which hid the bottom eight feet of the west wall on the moat side, and leveled a grass terrace to the water, which still surrounded the castle on three sides. The fourth side had of course to be reconstructed. This building gave us a long drawing-room on the ground floor and a suite of bedrooms above.

We continued our work with the battlements and machicolations of the gatehouse, and made the room over the entrance arch into a library. The other two sides of the outer courtyard, which had at one time been injured by fire, were temporarily left a ruin.

Solomon’s Tower was intact, save for a giant bite out of the top story, and this was next repaired (Figure 3). We then had a habitable house, drained, lit by electricity, and centrally heated., with a bathroom attached to each important bedroom – sufficient for our needs and finished before the Great War.

The experience gained on this straightforward piece of restoration is now being utilized to rebuild the twelfth-century banqueting hall, a work of considerable difficulty. But excavation of the two sides, of which nothing remained above ground, has revealed the bottom of a fireplace with its stone fender, the base and mouldings of the chief door, and the tiles of the pavement. The remaining two sides are intact, so that the restoration which is proceeding now will be correct in every detail.

The tower behind the Hall, which contained the principal bedroom, slept in by Henry VIII, whose chair descended with the castle, has been roofed since the war, though not yet made fit for habitation. The chapel adjacent to the gatehouse and the solar still remain in ruins.

Although there is still much to be done, it is now just conceivable that we may live long enough to finish the building. The interior decoration has not proceeded far. Unfortunately our collection of Italian old masters does not look well upon stone walls, and we are gradually paneling and painting some rooms and hanging others with Persian rugs and woven country clothes of the Stone Age, still being made in Sierra Leone. Those, in lieu of tapestry, look better than anything else on the walls (see bed in Figure 6). A copy of a fifteenth-century tapestry being made for me for the Great Hall will take at least ten years to complete.

Many of the rooms are paved with copies of thirteenth-century tiles (Figure 6) and have been designed to be roofed with replicas designed to be roofed with replicas of sixteenth-century plaster ceilings. One such has just been introduced into the hall of a neighboring castle with great effect. The furniture is largely of Jacobean oak. But before the war, or even now, decoration is subordinated to actual structural progress and to the rescue of the grounds from the tar-paving factory, the railway cutting, the cluster of ugly oast [sic] houses, and the public right of way that used to cut the property in half.

Thousands of tons of earth went into the railway cutting; by degrees a green meadow by the river took the place of the factory, and a new road was cut out through the wood to lead to the castle.

Not till after the war could any progress be made with the garden. But moss on the inside of the courtyard walls took the place of ivy; and the farmhouse vines, which used to yield eighty gallons of so-called champagne a year, were left to ramp over the ruined walls of the banqueting hall. The outside of the castle was purposely left severe and flowerless; the inner banks of the moat were turfed and mown, and only the outer ones were allowed to bloom with thousands of daffodils, and to grow hay, a mass of marguerites in between (Figure 1).

Between the eastern side of the castle and the twelfth-century wall, which bounds the moat, is about an acre of enclosed lawn, approached by a thirteenth-century door at the back of the banqueting hall.

Against the moat wall, stretching from a round twelfth-century pigeon house (Figure 2) to the back bridge behind Solomon’s Tower (Figure 3), a long herbaceous border has been made. By degrees the fields in which lie a Roman villa, the eleventh-century moated mound, the second twelfth-century pigeon house, and the fifteenth-century barns, are taking their place in a garden scheme, and a yew garden planted after the Armistice can now be trimmed into walls of a respectable height.

Much remains to be done; but on summer days when the roses are out and sympathetic friends spur us on, we sometimes think we may live long enough, after all, to complete our task. But nothing can deprive us of the fun we have had: digging out the history of the building from the ground and that of its owners from the Public Record Offices; planning the alterations and discussing the alternatives; utilizing every opportunity of travel to pick up adjuncts such as the statuette of Saint Martin over the Long Gallery door; breeding swans and peacocks, and draining the moat for treasures which we never find.

Tradition has it that when the golden pig is dug up at Allington, the finder will swiftly vanish away. May that be the end of us all!

This should be a convenient starting-place for “cousins” who are just starting to pull their trees together.

Adam Wyatt
Born 1320 in Yorkshire, England
Died 1385 in Yorkshire, England
Married Agnes Wigton
Born 1330 in Norwoods, London, England
Died 1385 in Southange, Yorkshire, England

Son William Wyatt
Born 1350 in Southange, Yorkshire, England
Died 1388 in Southange, Yorkshire, England
Second wife Jane Bailiffe
Born 1355
Died 1372

Son Robert Wyatt
Born 1372 in Southange, Yorkshire, England
Died 1440 in Southange, Yorkshire, England
Married Jane Skipwith
Born 1395 in South Haigh Mexborough, Yorkshire, England

Son Geoffrey Wyatt
Born 1410 in Southange, Yorkshire, England
Died 1460 in Southhenge, Surrey, England
Married Anne Skipwith – a cousin (?)
Born 1411 in Mexborough, Yorkshire, England
Died 1443 in Bisley, Gloucestershire, England

Son Richard Wyatt, Sheriff
Born 1428 in South Haigh Mexborough, Yorkshire, England
Died 1478 in Kent, England – not at Allington, the Wyatts didn’t own it yet
Married Lady Margaret Jane Bailiffe or Clarke
Born 1438 in Yorkshire, England
Died 1460 in Boxley, Kent, England

Sir Thomas Wyatt the Poet, a.k.a. Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder
Friend of /diplomat and ambassador for Henry VIII.
Born 1503 in Allington, Kent, England
Henry VIII had him deliver the Imperial Ambassador to London and he got sick from the heat and died at 39 years of age on 11 October 1542.
Married Elizabeth Brooke
The unhappy marriage did not last long.
She was born 1503 in Cobhamhall, Kent, England
After Sir Thomas’ death, Elizabeth remarried Sir Edward Warner, Lord Lieutenant of the Tower. When she died 10 October 1542, she was buried on Tower grounds.

(Interesting: After Henry VIII elbowed our Sir Tom out of Anne Boleyn’s circle, he took Elizabeth Darrell as his mistress. She was one of Katherine of Aragon’s few trusted servants. Katherine left money for Elizabeth’s eventual marriage, but that didn’t happen until both Sir Thomases were deceased. She had three children by Sir Thomas Wyatt the Poet and/or Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger. Potentially tawdry, I know. After Wyatt’s Rebellion one of her sons was executed with his father or half-brother – depending on what you choose to believe.)

Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder’s son by his wife, Elizabeth Brooke –

Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger
One of the leaders of “Wyatt’s Rebellion” against Queen Mary Tudor
Born 1521 in Allington Castle
Died a traitor’s death 11 April 1554 for his role in the rebellion against Queen Mary (Wyatt’s Rebellion)
Married Lady Jane Hawte or Haute
Born 1522 in Bishopsbourne and Wavering, Kent, England
Died 1600 in Boxley, Kent, England

Sir George Wyatt
First biographer of Anne Boleyn, still quoted.(See footnotes for Allison Weir’s The Six Wives of Henry VIII.)
Born 1550 in Kent, England
Died 1625
Married Lady Jane Finch 8 Oct 1582, Caswell, Kent, England
She was born 1555 in Eastwell, Kent, England, Great Britain
Died at the age of 89 in Allington Castle, Kent, England, Great Britain
Buried 27 March 1644 in Boxley, Kent, England, Great Britain

Captain John Wyatt
(First of four sequential John Wyatts)
Born 1630 in Boxley, Kent, England
Died 1666 in Gloucester, Gloucester, Virginia, United States
Married Jane Osborne
Born 1622 in Boxley, Kent, England
Died 1665 in Gloucester, Virginia, USA.

John Wyatt
(Second of four sequential John Wyatts)
Born 1663 in Boxley, Kent Co., England
Died 1684 in Gloucestor, Carolina, Virginia, United States
Married Anne Jones
Born 1663 in Lancaster, Virginia, United States
Died date unknown, Rappahannock, Virginia, United States

Captain John Wyatt
(Third of four sequential John Wyatts)
Born 1684 in Gloucestor, Carolina, Virginia, USA
Died November 1750 in Plaindealing, Caroline, Virginia, USA
Married Jane Pamplin
Born 1690 in Rickling, Essex, England
Died 1750 in Caroline, Virginia, USA

John Wyatt
(Fourth of four sequential John Wyatts)
Born 1731 in St George Parish, Caroline, Virginia, United States
Died 1 Mar 1785 in Gloucestor, Carolina, Virginia, United States
Married Elizabeth Ballard Smith
Born 19 Apr 1740 in Louisa, Virginia, United States
Died 13 Aug 1766 in Orange, Virginia, United States

James R. Wyatt
Born 1792 in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, USA
Died 1840 in Pendleton, Kentucky, USA
Married Rachel Rice
Born 1797 in Virginia, USA
Died 1860 (after)

Daughter Sarah Jane Wyatt
Born 1823
Died 1915
Husband William T. Clayton
Born about 1823 in Nicholas Co., KY
Died 15 Jan 1863 in Civil War

James C. Clayton
Born 24 Aug 1859 in Pendleton Co., KY
Died after 1900 in Harrison Co., KY
Married Roselle E. (Rosa) Simpson
Born May 1869 in Harrison Co., KY
Died AFT 1900 in Harrison Co., KY

Annie Mariah Clayton
Born Apr 1891 in Harrison Co., KY
Died September 6, 1954
Husband Jesse T Bolen
Born May 1887 in Indiana
Left his wife and son, moved to Oregon & started a new family
Died 1946, buried in Crescent Grove Cemetery, Tigard, Oregon

Forgive my rants and ramblings. “The Tudors Wiki” has an ongoing debate about which of Henry’s wives had it worse. I say it was Katherine of Aragon.

(The Tudors is a “visually lush but historically loose” series on the life and wives of Henry VIII. Our ancestor Sir Thomas Wyatt is an integral part of it. You can see seasons 1 and 2 on demand via Netflix; seasons 3 and 4 are available on DVD.)

I suspect 80% of “The Tudors”‘ research came from one of my favorite references – Alison Weir’s “Six Wives of Henry VIII.”

This actress is awesome in the role but the real queen had fair skin and reddish hair.

In my research I find myself growing very attached to some of these people. Katherine – like Sir Henry Wyatt – is a favorite. But it didn’t “feel” right because I’m supposed to be writing about our ancestors and their connections, ya know? So you can imagine my delight in finding she does have a connection to us.

Henry VIII elbowed our Thomas out of the way so he’d have a clear shot at Anne; then Tom fell in love with Elizabeth Darrel, Katherine’s Maid of Honor. (I’m going off memory so don’t hold me to details in this blog.)

Katherine of Aragon

It’s funny, the English had not yet encountered a strong, capable Queen Regnant but that’s exactly what Katherine’s mother was. Isabella I of Castile was at war and in the saddle the day before Katherine was born; she gave birth and rode off again the next morning, leaving the infant with a wet nurse.

Henry VII saw Isabella and Ferdinand as movers and shakers; he wanted to strengthen his claim to the throne by marrying his oldest, Arthur, to their Katherine. They were betrothed as toddlers.

I can’t remember how old Katherine was when she finally made the journey to England. I think early teens. She met with horrific storms en route and it took about three months to get there. I wonder if she saw that as an omen.

When she landed, she was entering prime child-bearing years. Arthur died of sweating sickness shortly after the wedding. Katherine was sick too – but she survived.

Imagine being a young girl, widowed, alone in a strange country. I read somewhere that her parents taught her to drink wine before she left home because the English couldn’t drink their water; it was unfit for human consumption.

Henry VII promised Isabel and Ferdinand that he would treat Katherine as his own daughter, but he used the young widow as a financial bargaining chip instead. He wanted dowry. He arranged for her betrothal to his son Henry, butyears later it was secretly withdrawn. He got stingy with her and she had to beg for clothes and money for the few loyal servants she had left.

Henry VII bears much blame for Katherine’s sad life because he wasted at least six of her prime child bearing years. Maybe if he had stepped aside, his son would have had his sons. Sure he would have strayed, but Katherine might have kept her crown and lived a more peaceful life.

By the time Henry VII died and the young Henry VIII accepted his brother’s widow as wife, she was 23 years old – he was 18. Her first son was born on New Year’s Eve – a little boy who died in less than 60 days.

More miscarriages … imagine the rush of hormones, the depressions, the grief. Queens were glorified breeders. I read that she gave off an unpleasant odor after every pregnancy and Henry couldn’t stand the thought of getting close. Plus she was getting old quickly. Who wouldn’t?

The royal couple’s daughter Mary didn’t count in the grand scheme of things because the English could not remember a time when they’d had an effective queen regnant.

Henry VIII’s father cared about money and establishing the Tudor dynasty. Henry VIII cared about putting on a big show and having a legitimate son or two to perpetuate the lineage.

I think it’s probably true that he felt he had sinned by taking his brother’s wife; but the measures he took to rid himself of this pious woman were despicable.

There is a scene in The Tudors where Katherine takes a nighttime carriage ride to a cathedral to pray for a son. She steps out of the carriage barefoot onto cold wet stones … it’s a powerful visual.

Katherine was the proud daughter of a powerful queen. Katherine herself was queen regnant for six months at the Battle of Flodden (Henry was busy in France at the time; nobody talks about that because he took credit for her win over the Scots.)

She was a was a good woman who genuinely loved her God, her husband and her daughter.

Towards Katherine’s end, Henry told Katherine and Mary they could see each other if they would acknowledge Anne as queen; they would not. Who could blame them?

All those miscarriages, one beloved daughter – then a husband whose affections grew cold to the point where he flaunted her successor. When they opened her up after her death, they found “something black” on her heart. They say now that was a cancer. Well, abuse feeds cancers. I say any way you cut it, she died of a broken heart.

Yes, I believe Katherine had it worst.

I truly wonder why the Catholic church sainted Sir Thomas More (who burned Protestants at the stake) but not Katherine? Her faith, integrity and loyalty were unshakable.

If you watch the Tudors, you’ll see the scene where Katherine dies and her maid Elizabeth Darrel hangs herself; it didn’t happen that way. Elizabeth D. did not commit suicide.

Katherine wrote Elizabeth D. into her will, hoping she would find a good match. She already had a match – our ancestor, Sir Thomas Wyatt. He even translated some Latin for Katherine. I wonder how well he knew her.

Anne Boleyn was the victim of her own ambition. I don’t care if we are related, I believe Anne’s karma played out in her lifetime; fortunately it did not extend to her daughter Elizabeth.

Elizabeth D. lived with Sir Tom at Allington until his death. (He died while traveling on behalf of the king.) She had sons by him; one died with his half-brother Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger at or after the rebellion.

Here’s something cool … last week I learned that Henry VIII gave Anne of Cleves three residences in appreciation for her willingness to step aside as wife. (She had to be giddy with relief!!) One of those residences was Hever, home of Anne and the Boleyns. Anne of Cleves also took an interest in little Elizabeth.

I wonder if the two spent time together at Hever. I can’t wait to learn more. I have a soft spot for bastards who turn out ok:-)

Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger made history by affecting the lives of three queens. He threatened one, hastened the death of the second and quite possibly saved the third.

Thomas Wyatt the Younger was born in 1521 at the Wyatt family home – Allington Castle.

Young Tom’s father – Sir Thomas Wyatt the Poet, a.k.a. Thomas the Elder

History describes Sir Thomas Wyatt the Poet as friend and diplomat of Henry VIII. He also had very close ties to his father Henry’s dearest friends – Sir Thomas More and Cromwell. Tom is best remembered for being in love with Anne Boleyn. He wisely stepped aside when Henry VIII expressed interest.

When Henry lost interest, young Tom’s Aunt Mary accompanied Anne to the scaffold; Anne gave Mary her prayer book and whispered her last words for Henry. Anne accepted her fate with grace and forgiveness.

Young Tom’s mother – Lady Elizabeth Brooke

Lady Elizabeth Brooke was a woman whose pedigree was vastly superior to her husband’s. She descended from William the Conqueror, the dukes of Normandy and the epic Vikings of legend who preceded them. He was the third generation of Wyatts to live in the castle once owned by William’s half-brother Bishop Odo.

Elizabeth was a descendant of John of Gaunt, Plantagenet duke – as were Henry VIII and Queen Katherine of Aragon. Most royal houses of Europe are connected through this line.

Most notably for her times, Elizabeth’s husband was in love with her second-cousin Anne. Tom Senior was not alone in his indiscretions, Elizabeth is said to have lived with another man, although it was never proven. Elizabeth’s husband filed for separation on grounds of adultery in 1525. While that type of blatant immorality was a disgrace among common folk, it was acceptable among the nobles.

It’s even said that Henry VIII was eyeing Elizabeth as a potential sixth wife.

Young Tom’s Grandfather – Sir Henry Wyatt Knight

The Wyatt family’s fate was tied to their relationships with the crown. It was as it had been for generations.

Young Tom’s grandfather, Sir Henry Wyatt Knight, had loyally helped Henry Tudor wrest the crown from the notoriously evil Richard III. He had even endured two years of torture, including the infamous rack. Henry was steadfast through all of it. According to tradition, Richard III lamented that his own servants “had not such fidelity.”

When Henry finally vanquished Richard at Bosworth, one of the first things he did was release his friend. Then it’s said he told Henry Wyatt “Study to serve me and I will study to enrich you.” And that’s exactly what happened. One of his most important purchases was Allington Castle, which was in need of restoration.

I will talk about Sir Henry Wyatt in another post. I’m trying to remain invisible throughout this book-writing process, but at this point I have to say that the pitifully unattractive Sir Henry is my favorite ancestor. Well, some of that probably has to do with “the barnacles” – a medieval torture that nearly twisted your upper lip off your face. That and the rack – two tortures he’s said to have endured.

Henry nearly died in prison. Have you heard the legend of the cat? While imprisoned by Richard III, he was befriended a cat who eventually brought him birds that were cooked by a “compassionate jailer.” He was essentially starving, so the cat saved his life. After that, Henry would “ever make much of cats”.

Henry suffered medieval torture on behalf of Henry Tudor and was generously rewarded for his loyalty and ongoing service for the rest of his life.

When Henry VII died, the gratitude and riches continued to flow through his son. Henry VII had named Wyatt his son’s guardian and upon Henry VIII’s coronation, Wyatt was created Knight of the Bath.

My impression is that his son Sir Thomas the Poet was frivolous and overly romantic; and that his son, Thomas the Younger was the typical over privileged rebellious kid there for a time; but he finally leaned to righteous causes as an adult.

Thomas Wyatt the Younger

Like his father before him, Young Tom grew up in Allington castle. At 15 he was appointed Esquire of the Body to Henry VIII, and Joint Constable of Conysborough Castle in Yorkshire, a post that was previously held by both his father and grandfather.

His grandfather died when he was 15 years of age. I haven’t done the research yet, but it’s possible Henry had more influence on young Tom than his father. Henry was old and tired by then, while Sir Thomas was still traveling on behalf of the king.

Thomas the Elder died “on the king’s business” when Young Tom was 21; he inherited substantial properties, including Allington and Boxley in Kent. His father was a bit of a gambler and a rogue, so some of the lands went to payment of debt.

In the 1540s Tom served in the wars against France and was given command of his own troops. In 1547 he was knighted. Henry VIII died that same year, but there was little drama as his crown passed seamlessly to his 15-year-old son, Edward VI. Protestants guided the court and all was well – until the young king got sick. Some say he had TB – others suspect his death was hastened by the Duke of Northumberland who “had an agenda”.

Edward had two older sisters. Mary, Catholic daughter of Katherine of Aragon, was a pious pain in the ass. The protestant Elizabeth was daughter of that whore Anne Boleyn; Edward loved her dearly.

Before his death, Henry VIII had recorded an Act of Succession that preserved his daughters’ access to the throne – but John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland had a better idea. He wanted more power. He convinced the young king to exclude both sisters from the line of succession and replace them with his son’s 16 year old wife, the Lady Jane Grey.

Jane’s pedigree was questionable. She was the granddaughter of Henry VIII’s younger sister Mary Tudor, Queen of France. She was also Mary’s cousin.

Edward died at 15 of a pulmonary infection – poison – or some combination of the two. Lady Jane Grey ruled for less than two weeks before being overthrown by Mary. Young Tom had been part of the movement to put Jane on the throne, but he managed to convince Mary of his loyalty.

Jane was also spared … for a time. She had two things in her favor. She was Mary’s cousin and Mary realized she had been a powerless victim. Mary had played that role most of her life. Only now she finally had the power she dreamed of. Power to right personal wrongs and return the country to the true religion; Catholicism.

She treated her cousin with kindness. Jane was given decent lodging at the tower and allowed to roam the queen’s gardens. Mary even gave her a generous allowance. All was well for a time.

Thomas and his Protestant friends watched passively until Mary made it clear she intended to marry Felipe of Spain – described on a Wyatt family site as “that other gloomy bigot.”

The combination of Roman Catholic AND flesh and blood Spanish influence in England was just too much for some. Understand that Mary’s grandparents were behind Spain’s bloody inquisition.

Young Tom accepted an invitation by Edward Courtenay, Earl of Devon, to rise up against Mary. Thomas held a meeting at Allington and ultimately managed to raise 4000 men. They marched on London in late January, 1554, but the English people rose in support of Henry’s oldest daughter. The rebellion failed and Thomas was imprisoned.

Some say his wife, Jane Hawte, was told Thomas would be spared if he would implicate Elizabeth; he refused. He was sentenced to a traitor’s death on 4/11/1554. He used to scaffold speech to exonerate Elizabeth and some say he may have saved her life. In the face of a violent death he said:

“And whereas it is said and whistled abroad that I should accuse my lady Elizabeth’s grace and my lord Courtenay; it is not so, good people. For I assure you neither they nor any other now in yonder hold or durance was privy of my rising or commotion before I began. As I have declared no less to the queen’s council. And this is most true.”

In the years to come, Elizabeth would not forget his loyalty.

Wyatt’s head was severed, his body was quartered and his bowels and genitals burned. His head and body quarters were parboiled and nailed up. His head was placed on a post – and later stolen.

Mary didn’t stop at that. She confiscated his estates and titles, causing severe hardships for his widow and children

Shortly thereafter Wyatt’s Rebellion caused the death of Lady Jane Grey. Mary knew Jane was innocent, but she took advice from Charles V of Spain. She made an example of Lady Jane and her husband Guilford Dudley.

Lady Jane’s husband was taken from the tower and beheaded in public at Tower Hill. Despite the fact that theirs was an arranged political marriage, Jane watched in tears as Guilford passed below her window to the tower.

Mary had Jane taken to The Tower Green, within the Tower. This private execution was seen as a gesture of respect.

This account of her execution is from Wikipedia: “The executioner asked her forgiveness, and she gave it. She pleaded the axeman, ‘I pray you dispatch me quickly’. Referring to her head, she asked, ‘Will you take it off before I lay me down?’ and the axeman answered, ‘No, madam’. She then blindfolded herself. Jane had resolved to go to her death with dignity, but once blindfolded, failing to find the block with her hands, began to panic and cried, ‘What shall I do? Where is it?’ An unknown hand, possibly Feckenham’s, then helped her find her way and retain her dignity at the end. With her head on the block, Jane spoke the last words of Jesus as recounted by Luke: “Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit!”

With Thomas, Guilford and Jane gone, Mary still had to decide what to do with that other threat; Elizabeth.

***Please contact me if you find any flaws in my research. Thanks so much – Micki.